Stranger
by Delsch89
Summary: Jake Sully wakes up to a new world, where the Earth he knew is long gone and the only other person who has any idea of what he's been through is Aloy. Jake's been permanently fused to his Avatar as well which raises a bunch of questions from the local population who doesn't even know about space, let alone avatars. [Rated M for language, SPOILERS,discontinued here, check profile]


His eyes opened up, taking in the blueish shadows of the room; a few sharp silver lines dotting the metal wall in front of him. His eyes told him one thing but his body a whole other; it was incredibly cold and yet it felt like he hadn't been more alive than he was right now. His eyesight was crystal clear and his ears could pick up on so many sounds around him. The creaking of frozen metal, the hissing from the cryo tube right behind him as it finished up its program… but it wasn't enough. There should be more, the room felt deathly silent as his eyes and ears adjusted well enough for him to step out of the tube.

" **Holy shit!** " he exclaimed as his naked feet felt the cold floor… a sensation that startled so much more than just the cold. How the hell was he standing at all, he shouldn't be able to. Not with how he had been frozen down in the first place. His feet were blue. He felt the tail balance him out as he staggered, his ears flickering to listen to each new creak in the walls. That'd explain the better sight and hearing too, as he was currently in the Avatar clone; something he had experienced several times before but it wasn't _right_.

He hadn't been connected to it during the cryo initiation.

Someone else's foot steps entered the room and Jake twisted around, indistinctly reaching for a weapon but he had nothing on him. All he had was a basic t-shirt and pants, hardly something to fight with. Before he could latch onto something else, the woman responsible for the sounds appeared; a nocked arrow trained on him already. Two things went through his mind; why on earth a bow and what was it with those clothes she carried?

Jake lifted his palms quickly; she might be much smaller than him (and his height had surprised her, he could see it clearly in her face), but an arrow would still hurt and potentially kill him even. She looked like someone who could use it well too so he kept his hands up, automatically hunching together a bit to look less intimidating.

" **I don't want to hurt you,"** he said, putting on his friendliest face but considering her surprise at his appearance, she wasn't one of the scientists… or even someone who knew about the avatars. He'd look pretty damn weird and intimidating for her then. The red-haired woman pulled back the arrow further, tightening the string as her brow furrowed dangerously.

" **What are you?** " she demanded, but her voice betrayed something else, something Jake had learned to listen for. She wasn't a trained killer, so not likely an assassin or spy of some kind. She was genuinely worried and uncertain about him.

" **My name's Jake Sully. I'm… human, I mean I usually am. This is just…** " he gestured towards himself without lowering his hands too much. " **Another body I use.** " Well, that sounded dumb, even he could hear that. He made a face afterwards but it seemed to ring a bell in the red haired woman, whose face swapped from tension to recognition. If faint and doubtful.

" **I read some of the ancient ones' files here. They spoke about humans… 'riding' another body,** " she nodded, still not easing up on the bow though. " **But that's impossible… you're an… ancient one?** "

" **I'm not** _ **that**_ **old,** " Jake frowned, slightly insulted, though her words caused a sense of alarm. His eyes swiped across the room, that alarm growing and creating an unsettling lump in his stomach. The walls, the furniture… everything in the room looked… old and fragile. As if years and years of dust had crumbled it all together. Much worse than the long abandoned shacks he had found in the jungles during his time as a soldier.

" **What's… what's an ancient one…?** " he asked his own question, still not looking at her as his brain tried to take in the sights. His arms sunk downwards, his tail hitting the cold floor. Apparently his own reaction was genuine enough for her to lower the bow, but not remove the arrow, as she kept frowning at him.

" **Those that used to live here. The** _ **humans**_ **from a very long time ago.** " She paused, arching an eyebrow. Could it really be…? That this strange, blue man came from that time? That was ridiculous, she conceded, shaking her head. But then, she was a clone from a woman from that time. How much really was impossible with the ancient ones? She jerked back into action as the blue man suddenly darted around towards the tube he had exited from. It still held power, obviously, but Jake knew what buttons to push on the control panel to produce the desired results. With a shaky intake of breath, he stared at the screen containing the numbers of how long he had put on ice.

" **Almost one thousand years,** " he croaked, his voice breaking in disbelief and he pushed away from the control panel, hands running across his black hair. " **It has to be a malfunction, that can't be fuckin' right.** "

" **Nope, pretty sure that's about right,"** the woman shrugged unhelpfully. From what she had gathered during her travels, it had been an unbelievable long time between the ancients and now. Jake turned to give her a wide eyed glare over his shoulder but in the end, it gave him nothing. Giving the control panel another look, he quickly turned away from it fully to face her again, when his eyes landed on the device attached to the side of her head. A focus! That'd give him the answers he needed. His own focus had to be somewhere around… last he recalled, he had it on himself when he had been frozen down. On his own body though.

That'd be in another chamber, this one only contained the special made tube for his avatar body and as far as he was concerned, this woman still stood in his way.

" **Look, lady, I need to find my focus. It'll explain everythin' but it's in the next room,** " he said, voice still trembling, offering her a half-hearthed point towards the door behind her. " **I really need to find out what the hell's goin' on… without you shootin' me with that thing."**

She glanced briefly over her shoulder, thinking it over but then… without him knowing, she had been the one to wake him up, out of pure curiosity. It certainly hadn't been to kill him. The woman stood up straight, finally pulling back the arrow from the bow string, clutching it in her hand instead.

" **I don't want to kill you** ," she shook her head. " **Unless you make me,** " she added, pointing at him with the arrow before stepping aside to let him walk to the door, though her eyes were pinned on him the whole time.

" **Last thing on my mind,"** he assured her. Ignoring her the best he could - he had to trust her for now - he approached the door and turned the blue hologram lever attached to it. As it opened, he took a careful look inside, inhaling sharply again. He wasn't sure why he had expected this room to be in any different condition than the one he had just left – because it was somehow in an even _worse_ condition. A first glance gave him a horrifying revelation too; none of the cryo pods in this room were _active_.

" **No, no!** " he cried out, running up to the the closest one and more or less punching the command panel to open it; prying the lid further in an attempt to speed up the process. A harrowing looking skeleton faced him, empty eye sockets staring into nothingness and Jake pushed back from it, shocked and disgusted. Slightly behind him, the woman recoiled as well though she remained by the pod even as he dashed to another in the row. As she stepped closer to the skeleton, she touched the focus on her ear, trying to read more from it, when she heard him open another pod.

When she looked back, she saw him leaning with his hands on the pod's edges, staring back at another skeleton with grim eyes. Gritting his teeth, his head bent down, knuckles turning pale where they clutched around cold metal.

" **I'm sorry. I guess these were people you knew?"** she asked. That much was easy to figure out. Jake said nothing as he reached for the focus still attached to the skeleton's head, putting it to his own ear. The woman lifted an eyebrow, recalling his earlier words about finding his focus and she approached the pod he stood by, using her own focus to read off the holographic name on it. Old dates and system configurations but two words stood out. Jake Sully.

" **You… is that…"** she started, perplexed and alarmed at the same time. She couldn't make sense of this alone, staring at him for an answer. He had yet to activate the focus, as if he was afraid of what he'd learn from it.

" **You read about humans ridin' other bodies, yeah?"** he replied bitterly, yellow eyes glancing back at her before he pointed towards the skeleton. " **Say hello to my corpse as it seems,** " he actually laughed but it was the hollowed laughter of someone not entirely processing a bad situation. " **This can't be…"** he continued, muttering more to himself now. " **How can my body be dea – there's no connection, there** _ **can't**_ **be."**

" **How can that be your corpse, you're standing right here!"** the woman demanded, frustrated. Jake lifted his palm towards her in order to quiet her, adding a quiet 'hang on' as he activated the focus. With the help of the small device, he could finally learn what had happened. Mostly anyway. It told him what he had started to suspect though… almost a thousand years since it had last been activated. It couldn't tell him much more than that but frankly, that was enough.

Jake fell to his knees, clutching his head and groaning and remained so for some time. " **The world really did go under, didn't it?** " he sighed after awhile, looking back up at the woman whose facial features had softened. If he really was an ancient one, and he had to be, she couldn't imagine the blow he had suffered; to learn that his entire world was gone. And yet this was just the tip of the iceberg. If he was this unaware, she was certain he didn't know what had happened. According to her findings, most of the past humans didn't know their world were doomed at all.

" **It did, yes,** " she nodded, silence filling the room for what had to be a few minutes, until Jake stood up again, wrapping his arms around him. He couldn't believe it. Yet this didn't answer another burning question. Why wasn't he dead if his bloody human body was a skeleton. Was he permanently stuck in the avatar body now? Of course he was, his _human body was a_ _skeleton_! You couldn't be more dead than that. Mentally telling himself to get a grip, he took a deep breath, drumming his fingers to his mouth.

" **Okay, okay… hang on. If the world went under, then how the hell are you here?"** he asked the woman. " _ **Who**_ **are you anyway?** " Perhaps what would be a better question. For all he knew he could be hallucinating her all together.

" **That's a** _ **very**_ **long story,** " she frowned. " **And this isn't a good place for it. We need to get you out of here, this place is gonna freeze by nightfall,** " she gave him a look, scrutinizing his ancient clothing that certainly wouldn't protect him from the snow and ice outside. " **Unless this… body of yours handles cold better?** "

" **I… don't think so,** " Jake frowned, looking down at himself. He knew the facility he had worked at the last weeks had been underground. The cold hadn't been an issue back then as far as he knew so the lump from before returned to his stomach; anxiety making itself known again. Just what waited him outside, a frigging frozen wasteland? Pulling at his t-shirt loosely, he glanced back at her.

" **You never told me who you are,** " he reminded her as he ventured towards one of the walls; the remains of old lockers that certainly looked like they had seen better days. As he opened them, the door went right off, revealing nothing but dust inside. A pile of it actually, so he figured pretty much everything in this facility would be in the same condition.

" **I'm Aloy** ," the woman replied, having followed him with her gaze. She hung the bow back over her shoulder, trusting the avatar for now. She heard Jake snort, as he turned back to her, looking bemused about something.

" **Seriously? What,** _ **metal lady**_ **or somethin'?** " he chuckled, but it quickly faded when the joke seemed to go right over her head. " **Nevermind. Nice to meet you,** _ **Aloy**_ **. Now there is a problem here, I have nothin' else I can use for clothes here. Everythin's just… gone."**

" **There's clothes - actually, there won't be anything to fit you in the village either, but there'll be fires and blankets** ," Aloy corrected herself; after all, Jake was a lot taller and bigger than a human. Regular clothing wouldn't cut it. Honestly, that was just one of the many problems he'd be facing. One would be just to explain _what_ the heck he was… and Aloy still wasn't certain of that either.

One thing at the time.

" **I have an idea,** " she tilted her head suddenly. " **Come on, we should get going. Unless you'd rather stay here?** " Jake looked around once more, sighing. In a way he did, but if she was right, then he wouldn't last long down here. He was awake in a new, strange world where everyone he had ever met were long dead… nothing about this spurred any motivation to keep going, beyond his brain's own self preservation. That and the fact the scientists drilled into his head just how _expensive_ the Avatar clones were.

" **No. There's nothin' left here** ," he shook his head, following her as she showed the way back out; even if he had been in those corridors before, they looked different now, worn down after so much time without maintenance. When she opened the final door out to the surface, the sharpness of the cold outside stunned him more than the actual sunlight. It was _really c_ old outside and he instantly wrapped his arms around him again, his tail clutching to his own leg. His clothes certainly weren't made to keep the cold out and he didn't even have any shoes.

" **Holy shit, this is insane,"** he hissed through gritted teeth, letting his eyes adjust beyond the blinding whiteness in front of him. Once they did, he drew in a breath in shock. The mountains, the forests that seemed to stretch on forever without any building or road in sight. Now the facility hadn't been near a city even before all this, but there had been houses, guard posts and roads. This was just abandoned wilderness drenched in a ton of snow.

Aloy gave him a concerned look, before whistling sharply. Something came trotting towards them from just behind a few large rocks; Jake first assumed it was a horse, but the metallic shine and parts quickly revealed it to be a robot that looked like a horse. A horse with _horns_. Now he had seen robots before, they were common in wars and such but something that looked like an animal? That was new.

" **That'd be neat as hell if I wasn't freezin' my tail off… and that was also the strangest thing I've ever said…"** he muttered. " **You ride this thing**?" Aloy nodded at the question.

" **I do and am the only one around here capable of doing so. Long story that too,** " she replied afterwards. " **Now they** _ **are**_ **pretty strong so I hope it can carry you despite your size. Just make yourself as…** _ **comfortable**_ **as you can**."

" **I'm not a horse person, you know,** " Jake sighed, awkwardly getting up on the machine, he had to more or less sit in a way so that his feet didn't hit the ground. The machine protested at the weight and honestly Jake didn't feel too comfortable sitting on top of cold metal either. Before he could decide if it was indeed better to just walk, Aloy urged the animal forward into a quick pace while still letting it walk rather than run and she herself kept up with it easily.

" **Where are we goin' again?** " he asked, trying to avoid clattering with his teeth too much, one arm still wrapped over his chest. It'd be a wonder if he didn't freeze both his tail and toes off within a few minutes… though he was incredibly thankful he didn't need to even touch the snow with his feet.

" **A village not far from here, you're lucky we're close to one of the biggest Banuk villages this near the Cut. I'm sure they'll help. But we have to figure out what to call you because… people** _ **will**_ **ask."** She stopped the machine for a moment, staring to the ground before looking back at him, her hand across the machine's forehead. " **There's something you need to know right now, Jake. No one knows about the war today except me and one other. You can't go talking about your time or give out details, because people will think you crazy. Trust me, I've tried and stopped very quickly because of that.** "

" _ **No one**_ **else knows?** " He stared back at her, golden eyes wide and forgetting the cold for the moment.

" **They don't. For all they know, the ancient ones killed themselves in a long forgotten war. Even fewer care to find out too, they have their own problems rather than go digging after more** ," Aloy admitted, subconsciously petting the machine's nose now as she thought about the matter. " **I can't even explain** _ **you**_ **really,** " she shook her head eventually, sighing. This could end two ways, the Banuk would make up their own story and possible shun or welcome him or they'd downright ignore him, forcing her to get the supplies and clothes needed by herself.

" **I don't think they'll attack you at least,** " she gave him a look. " **Just don't mention where you're actually from.** "

" **This makes no fuckin' sense at all** ," Jake groaned, raising his arms in frustration. " **Fine, I'll just say I don't recall anythin' before you found me somewhere. Always worked in the movies**."

" **Movies?** " Aloy asked as she nudged the machine back into its brisk walk.

" **As you're so fond of sayin'… it's a** _ **long**_ **story,"** Jake offered a half hearted smile, looking to the distance instead afterwards. He still couldn't really believe everything was gone, even something as simple as movies were probably very much unavailable now. Perhaps he took Aloy's words for granted but as they had walked, he had scanned the environment with his focus as well as tried to find other focuses to latch on to. So far it had only picked up Aloy's and the scans had revealed nothing modern hiding underneath the wilderness.

" **You know, your focus is unlocked. Anyone can get a hold of your frequency,** " he commented, disliking whenever the silence grew between them. Much like the silence of the dead.

" **That would explain** _ **a lot**_ **actually,** " she replied after awhile with arched eyebrows, as she thought about how many others so easily just started talking to her through it. " **I suppose you can access mine then?** "

" **I can. Might be useful if we're goin' to be around people. I'll send over my frequency, so you can access mine in return**." To someone who was unaware of how the focuses worked, Jake's hand motions in front of his face must have looked odd but to Aloy they were understood. He was simply browsing the HUD of the focus and she soon enough received the numbers needed to access his in return.

" **If only I could get a hold of Sylens's frequency…** " she muttered. " **I'd tell him a thing or two.** "

" **What?** "

" **Nothing.** "

* * *

 **OOC: Mostly written for my crossover verse where I play Jake Sully on tumblr. Might be more than one part.**


End file.
